2010 Louisville Cardinals Basketball: Louisville vs UConn

Okay, let's just allow the rest of a ridiculous Big East basketball season to play itself out. The Louisville Cardinals and Connecticut Huskies are showing that one week's bubble analysis is the next week's piece of worthless scrap paper tossed into the recycling bin or paper shredder.

Just when you think that a particular program is about to take on a given personality or travel in a specific direction, the bubble dwellers of the Big East seem to reverse course. A Louisville lineup that got lashed by Georgetown this past week was able to get off the deck in Storrs, Conn., while the homestanding Connecticut Huskies - fresh from rousing wins over top 15 mainstays Villanova and West Virginia - suddenly and alarmingly slipped back to the very middle of a crowded bubble realm.

Yes, to the surprise of every UConn fan inside Gampel Pavilion, the rapid ascendancy of the beloved Huskies was abruptly stopped by the visitors from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In a matchup of two Hall of Fame coaches who have undergone more than their share of adversity in the past year, Louisville strolled into New England and dug out a two-point win that will go a long way with the NCAA Tournament's Selection Committee in two weeks' time. The result will also do much to dent Connecticut's credentials, as the Huskies - done with their home slate for the season - must close with two challenging roadies against Notre Dame and Marquette, a pair of bubble-licious contests that will recalibrate the calculus in America's craziest conference.

Just how did Louisville regroup after its damaging home loss to Georgetown? Edgar Sosa might have hit the game-winning bucket on a slashing layup with eight seconds remaining, and UL big man Samardo Samuels might have sealed the win by blocking UConn's Kemba Walker with two seconds left and then throwing the ball into the air, but there's no denying that Pitino's pupils wouldn't have left town in triumph had it not been for the heroics of Preston Knowles. It was this overlooked figure who brought home a huge win for the Cardinals.

With 3:51 left in regulation, the outlook was defined by a low-level but deepening sense of concern for Louisville. Connecticut - which had been drowning in turnovers (the Huskies finished with 22) - had finally been able to take care of the ball on several consecutive possessions, and to the surprise of no one, the Huskies began to score. UConn, once down 68-61 at the 7:50 mark, zoomed to 10 straight points in the next four minutes for a 71-68 edge. The Cardinals needed to stop the bleeding, or else they'd come out on the short side of the bubble when they boarded their flight back to the Bluegrass. Someone had to step into the breach and stop a scoring drought that was killing the Cards' campaign.

Knowles became that man. The 6-1 junior scored UL's next seven points on three trips down the floor to give the visitors a 75-73 lead with 2:05 to go. Samuels and Sosa met the moment in the final 10 seconds, but it was Knowles who made those big plays possible.

What lies ahead for these two teams? Well, not just two games, but two weeks of bubble talk and an endless parade of must-have games. Let's not project where UL and UConn will end up; their results will tell the tale in a labyrinthine journey that's still a great many miles from its endpoint.

Louisville vs Connecticut Basketball Recap